SFL Reference Desk: Primary Sources

The collection of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting contains "thousands of high quality programs that have had national impact...[and] includes local news and public affairs programs, local history productions that document the heritage of local communities, and programs dealing with education, environmental issues, music, art, literature, dance, poetry, religion, and even filmmaking on a local level."

"ArchiveGrid includes over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies."

"Archives West provides access to descriptions of primary sources in the western United States, including correspondence, diaries or photographs. Digital reproductions of the materials are available in some cases."

The Avalon Project provides access to documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government from the Ancient world to the present day.

ProQuest invites you to explore their new Black Freedom Struggle website, featuring selected open primary source documents. Visitors will find historical newspaper articles, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence, and more from specific time periods in U.S. history marked by the opposition African Americans have faced on the road to freedom.

"Explore the rich and varied history of the United States through speeches, historical accounts, memoirs, poems, images, and multimedia." Login Info: UN: collegiateva / PW: cougar1

Search the collections of The British Museum.

Images from the collections of The British Museum.

"Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1924 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress"

"The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale."

"DOVE - Desegregation of Virginia Education - was created to find, catalog, and encourage the preservation of records that tell the story of Virginia's school desegregation process. Hosted by Old Dominion University Libraries, DOVE is a collaboration of universities, libraries, and community groups."

"DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All of the materials found through DPLA—photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, and so much more—are free and immediately available in digital format. The cultural institutions participating in DPLA represent the richness and diversity of America itself, from the smallest local history museum to our nation’s largest cultural institutions."

"Primary source collections [from Digital Public Library of America] exploring topics in history, literature, and culture developed by educators — complete with teaching guides for class use."

From the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University -- Links to open access resources and documents related to European history.

"Europeana Collections provides access to over 50 million digitised items – books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools to help you find what you’re looking for."

"Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more."

Homepage of The Library of Congress -- "the largest library in the world with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections."

Portal to The Library of Congress' Digital Collections .

Access subject-based primary source collections curated by The Library of Congress.

The World Digital Library "makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures."

Portal to the Library of Virginia's Digital Collections which span a wide range of Virginia history.

Primary source documents from 1608 to the present from the Library of Virginia.

From Library of Virginia: "Virginia Chronicle is a historical archive of Virginia newspapers, providing free access to full text searching and digitized images of over a million newspaper pages." The collection This contains 150,076 issues comprising 1,106,770 pages and 183,885 articles.

Virginia Memory links users to the Library of Virginia's online resources.

"Manuscripts Online enables you to search a diverse body of online primary resources relating to written and early printed culture in Britain during the period 1000 to 1500."

"MetPublications is a portal to The Met's comprehensive publishing program with over 1,500 titles, including books, online publications, and Bulletins and Journals from the last five decades" available to read, download, and search for free.

Mountain West Digital Library provides "free access to over 960,000 resources from universities, colleges, public libraries, museums, historical societies, and government agencies, counties, and municipalities in Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Hawaii, and other parts of the U.S. West."

Homepage of the National Archives and Records Administration -- "the nation's record keeper...[preserving] documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government[.]"

Search the catalog of the National Archives and Records Administration.

“Access thousands of primary sources — letters, photographs, speeches, posters, maps, videos, and other document types — spanning the course of American history.”

“[R]ead and search through thousands of records from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison and see firsthand the growth of democracy and the birth of the Republic.”

“Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents...leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets.”

Explore historic newspapers. Access to Newspapers.com available on-campus only.

Access primary sources found in the collections of Yale University.

"Search over 1.6 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials including more than 4.2 million online images, audio & videos and blog posts."

From JSTOR: "South Asia Open Archives is a free open-access resource for research and teaching - a rich and growing curated collection of key historical and contemporary sources in arts, humanities and social sciences, from and about South Asia, in English and other languages of the region...containing hundreds of thousands of pages of books, journals, newspapers, census data, magazines, and documents, with particular focus on social & economic history, literature, women & gender, and caste & social structure."

Umbra Search "brings together hundreds of thousands digitized materials from over 1,000 libraries and archives across the country [and] celebrates the vital efforts of the individuals and institutions that have helped to preserve and make accessible online hundreds of thousands of pieces of African American history and culture." The database "pays homage to the Umbra Society of the early 1960s, a renegade group of Black writers and poets who helped create the Black Arts Movement."

"Formally established in 1969, the Odum Institute Data Archive has become a leader in research data management, curation, and preservation. We also provide access to one of the largest collections of machine-readable social science data in the United States."

"Virginia Heritage is a consolidated database of more than 13,000 finding aids which provide information about the vast array of manuscripts and archival materials housed in the Commonwealth."